In yesterday’s program, Cathy Isom talked about candling as a method for checking freshness of your eggs. In today’s program, she discusses candling eggs and how to do it right. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Egg candling is a method of shining light inside an egg that enables you to see what’s going on inside. Candling helps you see if the egg is developing and progressing as it should be – or whether there’s a problem you need to address. Not only will you be able to keep track of fertility issues – you can see which eggs are fertilized early on – but you can also observe problems such as halted embryo development and late mortalities inside the shell. It also helps you determine the hatchability of shipped hatching eggs.
Use a basic flashlight or an expensive, high-end machine to do your candling. You don’t need to candle eggs everyday, because you don’t want to disturb the growth and development of what’s growing inside. Also, avoid using eggs that are dirty or soiled in any way. Even if you’re only candling nice, clean eggs – try not to keep them out of the incubator too long. You don’t want them to become chilled or dried out in the process. Never leave eggs outside the incubator for more than half an hour. Candling is best done after the fourth day of incubating.
I’m Cathy Isom…